Friday, June 30, 2017
What To Do About Obamacare
Republican voters mostly aren't against it for reasons other than the fact that it was championed by the black Muslim guy from Kenya. They don't like the as-yet-unenforced mandate, and they don't like it for all of the reasons that few people actually like our health care system - at best it's needlessly a pain in the ass, at worst, well, you know the worst. A lot of them are pissed off because they think the blahs got the secret welfare ACA (Medicaid) while they got Obamacare (the exchanges), even though a big reason (not the only one!) a lot of them didn't get Medicaid was they yelled and screamed for their states to "reject Obamacare" and, thanks to Roberts, what they could reject was the Medicaid expansion.
Hospitals hate the idea of repeal. Insurance companies mostly don't like it. For people with employer insurance, people who got Medicaid, and people who can kinda sorta afford the individual plans, it's mostly better (and since the mandate isn't even enforced, it's basically better for anyone who chooses to buy it).
Ultimately any "Republican healthcare plan" is basically Obamacare, but shittier. Even my glibertarian college facebook friend who HATES OBAMACARE earnestly described what the health care system should be, and it really was Obamacare without the mandate, to the letter.
The sociopaths in Congress wants to take away Medicaid, make it less affordable and with fewer benefits (at worst, completely fake insurance, at best something slightly better than that). Remove revenue from insurance companies and hospitals, including forcing them to eat more emergency room bills. Oh, and people don't get needed care and go bankrupt and die.
The leading liberal think tank has decided to make another stab at bipartisan fixes to Obamacare because I guess whatever was in the water that made Obama think elected Republicans were interested in such a thing is still in the water in DC. I'm not sure why "here's a really complicated plan that people won't like much more than the status quo and has no chance of passing" is better than "here's a really simply-sounding (nothing is simple, of course, but the bureaucracies should handle the bureaucracy, not us) idea that would be popular and better and universal and has no chance of passing right now" but centrists gotta centrist I guess.
Hospitals hate the idea of repeal. Insurance companies mostly don't like it. For people with employer insurance, people who got Medicaid, and people who can kinda sorta afford the individual plans, it's mostly better (and since the mandate isn't even enforced, it's basically better for anyone who chooses to buy it).
Ultimately any "Republican healthcare plan" is basically Obamacare, but shittier. Even my glibertarian college facebook friend who HATES OBAMACARE earnestly described what the health care system should be, and it really was Obamacare without the mandate, to the letter.
The sociopaths in Congress wants to take away Medicaid, make it less affordable and with fewer benefits (at worst, completely fake insurance, at best something slightly better than that). Remove revenue from insurance companies and hospitals, including forcing them to eat more emergency room bills. Oh, and people don't get needed care and go bankrupt and die.
The leading liberal think tank has decided to make another stab at bipartisan fixes to Obamacare because I guess whatever was in the water that made Obama think elected Republicans were interested in such a thing is still in the water in DC. I'm not sure why "here's a really complicated plan that people won't like much more than the status quo and has no chance of passing" is better than "here's a really simply-sounding (nothing is simple, of course, but the bureaucracies should handle the bureaucracy, not us) idea that would be popular and better and universal and has no chance of passing right now" but centrists gotta centrist I guess.
And 500 Other Things
Self-driving cars fans live in environments which have basically been built for cars and not in somewhat older areas where car-centric environments were retrofitted slowly over time. Roundabouts are hard, but so are hundreds of other non-standardized things.
This is correct, though I think it also misses the point. While there will be uses for this technology, they'll be so limited as to be almost pointless. Great, self-driving shuttle buses in Disney World to get people from the parking lot to the park gate. I mean, cool, I guess, but...
"Roundabouts are considered to be very challenging for automated vehicle technology," says Helen Kourous, a Ford engineer. "They are very unstructured. No two are alike. You can find many different configurations. Human drivers can sometimes get confused in them," she says.
In geofenced areas, such as the parking lot at Walt Disney World, a gated community, or a college campus, Level 5 self-driving vehicles make perfect sense, and they will work. I can see Level 3 vehicles in a few years where vehicles can drive themselves on highways but must hand off to the human driver if they can't figure out a situation. And that's about really all we can expect in the next 25 years.
This is correct, though I think it also misses the point. While there will be uses for this technology, they'll be so limited as to be almost pointless. Great, self-driving shuttle buses in Disney World to get people from the parking lot to the park gate. I mean, cool, I guess, but...
Everyone With A Name Match Will Be A Vote Fraudster
Kobach knows this game with databases. You program them to make soft matches - similar names, party affiliation - and then accuse everyone of having a match of having voted twice. Of course this almost never ever ever ever happens and certainly doesn't happen enough to swing elections, but gotta lock up potential Dem voters any way you can.
Voter suppression has been his career for years. What a calling. He should be in jail.
A letter from Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of a White House commission looking into voter fraud and other irregularities, is drawing fire from some state election officials. The letter, sent Wednesday to all 50 states, requests that all publicly available voter roll data be sent to the White House by July 14, five days before the panel's first meeting.
Voter suppression has been his career for years. What a calling. He should be in jail.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Good Timing On Your Bret Stephens Hire, New York Times
No one weather event doesn't mean anything about climate overall, but...
A city in southwest Iran posted the country’s hottest temperature ever recorded Thursday afternoon, and may have tied the world record for the most extreme high temperature.Etienne Kapikian, a forecaster at French meteorological agency MeteoFrance, posted to Twitter that the city of Ahvaz soared to “53.7°C” (128.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Kapikian said the temperature is a “new absolute national record of reliable Iranian heat” and that it was the hottest temperature ever recorded in June over mainland Asia.
This Is Republicans
As Pareene says, Trump the person is not normal, but the Trump presidency basically is just a Republican presidency, with some extra crazy tweeting.
Guilty
Well my local DA just copped a guilty plea.
He ran courting the young progressive vote, people who assumed the younger black guy had to be better than the older white woman who seemed to like nothing more than trying to get capital convictions. He didn't promise to be a perfect progressive DA, but he did promise to be better in ways that mattered, promises he mostly didn't keep.
And then there was the corruption.
He ran courting the young progressive vote, people who assumed the younger black guy had to be better than the older white woman who seemed to like nothing more than trying to get capital convictions. He didn't promise to be a perfect progressive DA, but he did promise to be better in ways that mattered, promises he mostly didn't keep.
And then there was the corruption.
More thread
Only have my phone to post with but the lesson of the day is words speak louder than actions.
Guns Kill People
Also, sadly, very stupid people kill people, but it's a lot harder to do without the guns.
Gun nuts always respond to this kind of thing (and almost every "accidental" type shooting) with a No True Responsible Gun Owner fallacy. Responsible Gun Owners don't do this stuff! They lock their guns! They know gun safety!
We don't require gun owners to be responsible gun owners.
A Minnesota woman has been charged over the fatal shooting of her boyfriend, in what authorities say was a social media stunt gone wrong.
Monalisa Perez, 19, was booked into county jail after shooting at Pedro Ruiz as he held a book to his chest, believing it would stop the bullet.
Gun nuts always respond to this kind of thing (and almost every "accidental" type shooting) with a No True Responsible Gun Owner fallacy. Responsible Gun Owners don't do this stuff! They lock their guns! They know gun safety!
We don't require gun owners to be responsible gun owners.
Trumpkins
I get how this dynamic unfolds in a typical workplace (or family). The boss (father) is an asshole, a tyrant, everyone jockeys to curry favor and avoid the wrath of daddy, selling out each other if necessary, complaining to friends over drinks.
But this show is on teevee all day every day. Also, too, it matters? Like, the world can end kind of matters. I'm not asking anybody for extreme nobility, and certainly not this crowd, but it should be rather obvious that mere self-preservation, merely keeping Daddy from lashing out at you at the dinner table, is just not important. And you can just fucking quit.
But this show is on teevee all day every day. Also, too, it matters? Like, the world can end kind of matters. I'm not asking anybody for extreme nobility, and certainly not this crowd, but it should be rather obvious that mere self-preservation, merely keeping Daddy from lashing out at you at the dinner table, is just not important. And you can just fucking quit.
Veteran Washington reporters tell me that they have never observed this kind of anxiety, regret, and sense of imminent personal doom among White House staffers—not to this degree, anyway. These troubled aides seem to think that they can help their own standing by turning on those around them—and that by retailing information anonymously they will be able to live with themselves after serving a President who has proved so disconnected from the truth and reality.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Life Is A Neverending Customer Service Hold Session
Cost and accessibility are big issues with health care, of course, but I think what even the Good Guys miss is that life shouldn't be a neverending accounting nightmare.
And the crap of modern life never ends.
So I put $2,600 in the account and ADP sent me a debit card. I started using it at the doctor's office, at the pharmacy, at the physical therapist. (I threw out my back this spring, which is a reason I've been a little crankier than usual.)
Then, after a few months, I got a letter in the mail from ADP saying it needed my receipts. Receipts? I thought ADP got those straight from the providers. It seems it does get them from CVS, but not from the medical providers. I was supposed to be uploading those receipts through a website. Instead, I threw them away.
If I had to upload the receipts, then what was the point of the debit card? If the system requires that much paperwork, I might as well be submitting claim forms and getting checks in the mail.
Anyway, now I have to call those providers' offices and get duplicate receipts and upload them and allow seven to 10 days for processing. Until I do that, I have been cut off from access to the money in the account — my own money — that got in the account only because Congress chose to offer a tax preference that I could get only by using such an account.
Who wants to deal with this crap?
Nobody wants to deal with this crap, that's who
And the crap of modern life never ends.
Things That Don't Matter
If New York City - and perhaps the country following - goes into a recession it'll be because the powers that be - mostly Cuomo, but not just - didn't realize that quality of life for the great mass of people who depend on the subway matter a lot more than new convention center infrastructure or expensive bridge replacements for bridges that should never have been built in the first place.
5.6 million people ride the subway every day. You don't have to have The Math to understand that Uber ain't gonna replace that, even if people can afford to take it.
Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded, is a joke, until it isn't.
5.6 million people ride the subway every day. You don't have to have The Math to understand that Uber ain't gonna replace that, even if people can afford to take it.
Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded, is a joke, until it isn't.
About That Border With the EU
I read this last year and while a lot of it should be obvious to anyone who has thought a few minutes about this stuff, it's obvious the Brexiteers have not thought a few minutes about this stuff, or really anything at all because, politics aside, they are all ridiculously incompetent idiots.
Click here to read the whole thread, as we say...
1. My thoughts as a Northern Irish person on how NO LEAVERS REALISED that Brexit will likely precipitate utter carnage in NI and, thusly, UK
— Shocko (@shockproofbeats) June 27, 2016
Click here to read the whole thread, as we say...
Just How Does That Happen
It isn't just the money that matters, it's how does a PR operation manage to insert someone into the public debate like this?
As for the money...Well, we all gotta eat, but some of us try to eat without making others eat shit. Though as I grow old and cynical I start to think my biggest mistake was not joining Team Evil early in life. The snacks are much better.
As for the money...Well, we all gotta eat, but some of us try to eat without making others eat shit. Though as I grow old and cynical I start to think my biggest mistake was not joining Team Evil early in life. The snacks are much better.
Strong and Stable
Brexit negotiations are going to be such a disaster.
They all think they can have all the 'good things' and none of the 'bad things' though they don't all agree on which is which and also fail to realize that the EU does not give a fuck.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s office tried to downplay a row between her most senior officials over whether Britain should have a transition period as it leaves the European Union, as tensions over Brexit policy emerged.
Brexit Secretary David Davis accused Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond of taking inconsistent positions on whether the U.K. should seek a bridging deal, which could mean remaining in the customs union for years after Britain’s due to quit.
Euroskeptic Davis insisted the U.K. was likely to quit the customs union on the first day of Brexit in March 2019. But speaking in Germany on Monday, Hammond restated his view that a lengthier transition period would be required to help businesses avoid a cliff-edge shift in their trading arrangements.
They all think they can have all the 'good things' and none of the 'bad things' though they don't all agree on which is which and also fail to realize that the EU does not give a fuck.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Anyone Have Audiobook Recommendations?
Because I am behind on everything I only realized not all that long ago that you can download audiobooks from your (my) local library to your pocket computer device for free. They're good for certain activities (cooking, walking sometimes, running sometimes), and certainly if I drove more often I would listen to them a lot more, but I do find it hard to find ones that, well, I can pay attention to. I'm not sure I can describe the ones that seem to fit for me. First person narration is out, I think. Also I have to like the book! But some books/readers I just can't manage to pay attention to at all even if I'd probably like the book if I actually read it...any help?
That Boy Ain't Right
A framed copy of Time with @realDonaldTrump on the cover hung in several of his clubs. And it's fake https://t.co/hT3udBhfhX by @Fahrenthold pic.twitter.com/BKDlZNR6Ad
— Mark Berman (@markberman) June 27, 2017
So Health Insurance Is Worthless Then
One of the more amusing things in the health care debate is well-insured people asserting that health insurance doesn't really help people. These are usually people who have, in one way or another, sold their souls for cushy jobs that include good health insurance and who would, if necessary, sell their souls just for the health insurance.
Because we all would, because that's where we are right now.
Hopefully someone amends the law so that employer-provided health insurance benefits must be optional. You can take the cash or take the insurance. Then we can see how many people refuse this unnecessary benefit.
(Health insurance is "worthless" in the sense of being a worthless economic activity, adding an expensive layer of middlemen and grifter executives which might destroy the economy, but it is certainly not worthless to have in the system we sadly have).
Because we all would, because that's where we are right now.
Hopefully someone amends the law so that employer-provided health insurance benefits must be optional. You can take the cash or take the insurance. Then we can see how many people refuse this unnecessary benefit.
(Health insurance is "worthless" in the sense of being a worthless economic activity, adding an expensive layer of middlemen and grifter executives which might destroy the economy, but it is certainly not worthless to have in the system we sadly have).
America's Worst Humans
Chris Cillizza
This whole exchange needs to be savored, and then sent to the alien anthropologists so they understand why our civilization died.
This whole exchange needs to be savored, and then sent to the alien anthropologists so they understand why our civilization died.
Nope! Read the post. Emoji based solely on whether or not the bill passes. Have a great night!
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) June 27, 2017
Ah. But "people live" seems like a pretty big partisan assumption on your part when it comes to the effects of the bill.
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) June 27, 2017
Monday, June 26, 2017
There's A Sucker Born Every Minute
Figured Rahm would love this idiocy.
Like mass transit, but only for rich people.
O'HARE — Mayor Rahm Emanuel's long-gestating plan for a high-speed rail line between Downtown and O'Hare Airport got a jolt of electricity Monday with the news that Tesla founder Elon Musk may be interested in the project that the mayor has called "essential for the city's future."
...
Tickets on an express train — which would zoom from O'Hare to Downtown in 20 or 25 minutes — could cost between $25-$40, according to estimates, while a one-way fare on the Blue Line from O'Hare now costs $5.
Like mass transit, but only for rich people.
No Happy Hour You, Or You, Or You
The CBO score for the Senate Bill is out and it is sooooo much better than the House Bill. Oh wait, no it's not. And all you who are comfortable with Medicare, guarantfuckingteed, if they get away with gutting Medicaid, Medicare will be next.
Liars
Taking their queue from the top and decades of media letting Republicans lie about everything, they've realized they can just go on TV and lie about their plan to kill you in order to lower taxes for a tiny number of very rich people.
Reporters will respond "oh, but, we ran a fact check, we pointed out that people disagree..." And, yes, they're right, but the press can collectively turn "lying about important national policy affecting the entire country" into a kind of 24/7 thing they way "Al Gore 'lying' about inventing the internet" was, or they can just shrug it off as just another day in politics. Sure, they lied, but, hey, Hugh Hewitt says they didn't lie...
And, no, individual reporters aren't responsible for the collective, but I think individual reporters too often pretend the collective doesn't exist. Some stories go the Full OJ and some stories don't. No one person has the power to make that happen, but they all can choose whether or not this is, in fact, more important than Barack Obama not wearing a flag pin.
If you can't pay for health care you need in this country, you will probably die. Emergency rooms have to stabilize, but they don't have to treat you. That doesn't do much for, say, cancer.
Some Republicans are so rich that they're mostly right to think that none of this matters for them, personally, but most of them aren't (sure their health insurance is good, but not necessarily that of everyone in their extended families). I don't know how they can be the monsters that they are, apparently thinking no one they care about will ever get sick and face these problems. But monsters they are.
Anyway, call your senators. Call their DC offices. Call their local offices. Call the good ones and the bad ones. Call the Republicans and the Democrats. Be polite, but be direct.
Reporters will respond "oh, but, we ran a fact check, we pointed out that people disagree..." And, yes, they're right, but the press can collectively turn "lying about important national policy affecting the entire country" into a kind of 24/7 thing they way "Al Gore 'lying' about inventing the internet" was, or they can just shrug it off as just another day in politics. Sure, they lied, but, hey, Hugh Hewitt says they didn't lie...
And, no, individual reporters aren't responsible for the collective, but I think individual reporters too often pretend the collective doesn't exist. Some stories go the Full OJ and some stories don't. No one person has the power to make that happen, but they all can choose whether or not this is, in fact, more important than Barack Obama not wearing a flag pin.
If you can't pay for health care you need in this country, you will probably die. Emergency rooms have to stabilize, but they don't have to treat you. That doesn't do much for, say, cancer.
Some Republicans are so rich that they're mostly right to think that none of this matters for them, personally, but most of them aren't (sure their health insurance is good, but not necessarily that of everyone in their extended families). I don't know how they can be the monsters that they are, apparently thinking no one they care about will ever get sick and face these problems. But monsters they are.
Anyway, call your senators. Call their DC offices. Call their local offices. Call the good ones and the bad ones. Call the Republicans and the Democrats. Be polite, but be direct.
Nothing We Can Do About Technology
All my adult life the narrative has been: changing technology increases inequality, this is inevitable, there's very little to be done but hand wring about it. Whatchagonnado? It's technology, you Luddite! Now the robots are coming - though they aren't here yet! - is the latest round in this. Robots will take all of the jobs (of people who aren't like me). They'll get poorer. Maybe we should think about doing something but not do it?
All bullshit.
All bullshit.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
As I Was Saying
My self-driving car skepticism used to make some people Mad, the way that bitching about Apple products makes some people Mad (I mean, disagree, fine, but why you so mad, bro?). At some point people stopped getting mad...
The obvious conclusion to draw from Uber's crisis and Tesla's Autopilot struggles is that the disruption of transportation so enthusiastically cheered by the tech industry was ridiculously overblown. And it wasn't confined to Tesla and Uber.
Despite Waymo's partnership with Lyft, the self-driving project isn't closer to commercialization now than it was three years ago. And the Apple Car — "Project Titan" — has pivoted numerous times, always vaguely and secretively.
Lying Is Bold
Modern journalism.
HHS Secretary Tom Price making a bold delararion to @DanaBashCNN: "We would not have individuals lose coverage."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 25, 2017
Maybe We Shouldn't Burn All The School Children
Takes conservatives a massive tragedy do understand what all those safety regulations were about.
Though at least in the UK they're occasionally capable of learning.
Of course there are dumb and "bad" regulations but conservatives have decided that they're all just some liberal plot to sap the precious bodily fluids from rich people when, Actually, some of them are there so people are less likely to die in horrible fires.
Controversial government proposals to relax fire safety standards for new school buildings as a cost-cutting measure are to be dropped by ministers in a major policy U-turn following the Grenfell Tower fire.
Though at least in the UK they're occasionally capable of learning.
Of course there are dumb and "bad" regulations but conservatives have decided that they're all just some liberal plot to sap the precious bodily fluids from rich people when, Actually, some of them are there so people are less likely to die in horrible fires.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
This Isn't Better
I think the point that people miss is that having to pay attention while having nothing to do is really boring. Boredom sucks. I'd rather drive the car then have to pay constant attention to my car driving itself. These just aren't useful features.
Maybe the driver should just, you know, drive? Sure some safety features like auto-braking or collision avoidance might be good (if implemented well), but those are just safety features, not "you don't actually have to drive the car" features.
General Motors delayed introduction of a driver assistance technology called Super Cruise that was initially planned for late last year because it said it was not ready. The technology will go on sale this fall.
Barry Walkup, chief engineer of Super Cruise, said the company added "a driver attention function, to insist on driver supervision."
The system uses a small camera that focuses on the driver and works with infrared lights to track head position to determine where the driver is looking.
If the system—which uses facial recognition software—detects the driver is not paying attention, it will prompt the driver to return attention to the road. If the driver does not respond, it will escalate alerts, including a steering wheel light bar, visual indicators, tactile alerts in the seat and audible alerts. If the driver does not respond, the vehicle is brought to a controlled stop.
Maybe the driver should just, you know, drive? Sure some safety features like auto-braking or collision avoidance might be good (if implemented well), but those are just safety features, not "you don't actually have to drive the car" features.
Mini-Fundraiser Final Day!
Thanks to all who contributed. I said a 3 day mini-fundraiser but then I sort of forgot about the last couple of days so, day 3 today! (I didn't really forget I just find these posts hard to write).
People have been complaining about some ads. Annoying auto-on ads aren't supposed to happen, but I don't see the same ads "you" see, so it's hard for me to do anything about them when they do. I did tweak a couple of settings though I'm not sure if that did the trick. If there's a problem, send me a screen shot or if you dare actually click on the ad or otherwise figure out what the landing page is and let me know (that's the easiest way for me to kill these things but I understand if people don't want to click on the ads).
People have been complaining about some ads. Annoying auto-on ads aren't supposed to happen, but I don't see the same ads "you" see, so it's hard for me to do anything about them when they do. I did tweak a couple of settings though I'm not sure if that did the trick. If there's a problem, send me a screen shot or if you dare actually click on the ad or otherwise figure out what the landing page is and let me know (that's the easiest way for me to kill these things but I understand if people don't want to click on the ads).
The DCCC Defense Squad
Once upon a time it seemed to be a rather banal observation that the Democrats (overall, the official party/fundraising structures) were a bit more beholden to and influenced by the rich donor class than they should be. This didn't make them all evil, but the people with the big checks and, even more sadly, David Brooks, were more likely to have their ears than, say, a fast food worker, and even those of us with the best intentions tend to be influenced by those in our social circles.
One doesn't even have to get to corruption to see all of this is rather obvious. That rich people are smart and have all the answers is deeply ingrained in our contemporary discourse, or so I discussed over drinks with Katie Couric, David Koch, Madeline Albright, and David Bradley at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Okay I served them drinks.
This seems to make people Mad now. I don't get it.
One doesn't even have to get to corruption to see all of this is rather obvious. That rich people are smart and have all the answers is deeply ingrained in our contemporary discourse, or so I discussed over drinks with Katie Couric, David Koch, Madeline Albright, and David Bradley at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Okay I served them drinks.
This seems to make people Mad now. I don't get it.
20 Years?
I suppose it's been fun reading all of those articles about how self-driving taxis were about to be on the road, but the new CW is starting to sink in.
Maybe it sinks in just quickly enough to stop the state from making tons of policy decisions based on a fantasy, which is the only reason I've ever cared about this, especially as even if they worked, the self-driving car fantasy of removing the need for mass transit was dumber than than the idea that they would work in the first place...
The only escape for Uber imagined by Kalanick was to delete drivers and their wages from the picture through the development of autonomous vehicles. But it is increasingly clear that this is another massive gamble that Uber cannot win, at least not in time to save itself. Most experts, including those previously bullish on self-driving technology such as the Economist magazine, have recognized that autonomous vehicles are at least 20 years from fruition.
Maybe it sinks in just quickly enough to stop the state from making tons of policy decisions based on a fantasy, which is the only reason I've ever cared about this, especially as even if they worked, the self-driving car fantasy of removing the need for mass transit was dumber than than the idea that they would work in the first place...
Friday, June 23, 2017
No One Should Write A Column Twice Per Week
This is correct! A nice thing about blogging is it allows you to recognize that sometimes you have a good point (or a point you think is good) which requires a just few sentences. Or even one! This is not to say that shorter is always better. I am not trying to write in favor of my usual style. It's just that if you have a two column per week gig then you have to turn those two possibly good sentences into 740 words. Also sometimes your point might take 1500 words! Maybe you have two timely wordy good takes two days in a row! And that won't be an option either! Gotta have one column for Tuesday, one for Saturday, or whatever.
The general point is that even people who have a lot to say and are good at finding interesting things to say those things are going to find it hard to come up with two good 740 word columns on schedule twice per week every week. Year after year after year.
It isn't that writing two columns per week for an absurd about of money is hard work, it's just that a lot of it is inevitably going to be bad work. Though, yes, a lot of the people with those jobs are also horribly bad at them for other reasons.
The general point is that even people who have a lot to say and are good at finding interesting things to say those things are going to find it hard to come up with two good 740 word columns on schedule twice per week every week. Year after year after year.
It isn't that writing two columns per week for an absurd about of money is hard work, it's just that a lot of it is inevitably going to be bad work. Though, yes, a lot of the people with those jobs are also horribly bad at them for other reasons.
Nobody Cares About Process
I still see Dem politicians boasting about how many hearings, etc..., they had for Obamacare back in 2009. Sure there's a working the ref angle here - reporters shouldn't continue (they never should have begun) broadcasting Republican complaints (lies) about how the Dems didn't include them in the process - but Republicans don't care, Republican voters don't care, and most other voters don't care either.
Figure out how to beat this bill and/or cause maximum PR and electoral pain for anyone who votes for it. It isn't as if there hasn't been time to prepare for this. And, no, relying on "moderate Republicans" to do the right thing won't work.
Figure out how to beat this bill and/or cause maximum PR and electoral pain for anyone who votes for it. It isn't as if there hasn't been time to prepare for this. And, no, relying on "moderate Republicans" to do the right thing won't work.
Foolproof
I doubt they need to be "foolproof" in the sense of being 100% safe.
They need to work in a way which reduces your stress levels, not increases them. Look even basic "cruise control" which has been around forever was never especially awesome. Sure I use it sometimes and lots of people do but I generally turn it off after awhile because it felt like I had to pay more mental attention, not less, to what was going on. As long as you feel like you might have to take full control suddenly, there's a little primitive brain stress alarm just poised to go off. The "auto-pilot" of instinctive driving (which I've lost somewhat since I don't drive that much anymore) is actually more automatic than autonomous driving features that only sorta work.
Is this a good idea?
It could be! But people will like it if they're basically unaware of it until it kicks in, and not if they're expecting to happen, not if they are told "ah, don't worry about the brake, the car will apply it if necessary..probably..."
The problems with semiautonomous features should sound a warning bell for auto makers, tech companies and parts suppliers. Customers will need to be convinced that these semiautonomous features that are the building blocks for autonomous vehicles are foolproof before they give up driving control.
They need to work in a way which reduces your stress levels, not increases them. Look even basic "cruise control" which has been around forever was never especially awesome. Sure I use it sometimes and lots of people do but I generally turn it off after awhile because it felt like I had to pay more mental attention, not less, to what was going on. As long as you feel like you might have to take full control suddenly, there's a little primitive brain stress alarm just poised to go off. The "auto-pilot" of instinctive driving (which I've lost somewhat since I don't drive that much anymore) is actually more automatic than autonomous driving features that only sorta work.
Researchers find that Americans are particularly skittish about giving up control of a vehicle to an automated system, but a new study says car buyers are now simply fed up with semi-autonomous features like lane-departure assist and adaptive cruise control, the Wall Street Journal reports.
As part of J.D. Power’s annual Initial Quality Study, the Journal says car buyers reported being “increasingly dissatisfied with the semiautonomous features showing up on vehicles.”
Is this a good idea?
Auto makers and regulators are taking steps to make semiautonomous safety gear becomes more ubiquitous. Nearly a dozen top car companies, for instance, have pledged to make automatic emergency brakes standard on future vehicles.
It could be! But people will like it if they're basically unaware of it until it kicks in, and not if they're expecting to happen, not if they are told "ah, don't worry about the brake, the car will apply it if necessary..probably..."
Cladding
It's obviously good that they are pro-actively going after a genuine fire hazard, but the broader issue is years of neglect of basic fire safety issues. The cladding is likely just one problem of many.
Thousands of tower block residents around the UK have been warned that their homes are clad with the same flammable aluminium panels believed to have fuelled the deadly blaze at Grenfell Tower in London.
A day of frantic testing by local authorities began to determine how many people were living in potentially dangerous high rises, after Theresa May warned that some of the first tests had revealed combustible cladding on buildings.
Some councils said that cladding would be stripped from buildings and that round-the-clock fire patrols would start immediately in suspect blocks.
They Did It!!!
Can't wait to take a self-driving taxi to the mall!!!
“We are delighted that JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have completed the full financing for American Dream. The response by the investment community to the bond offering and private financing have been exceptional, both oversubscribed, confirming strong investor confidence in our vision for American Dream. We would like to thank the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and Borough of East Rutherford for their assistance in the bond sale.” Don Ghermezian, President, Triple Five.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
On That Note
This has been the basic critique of the DCCC every since I started paying attention to these things. They don't have a great track record.
All of that can lead to the conclusion that the DCCC could be as incompetent as its leftist critics allege, and Democrats could still take back the House. But there’s another perspective, which is essentially that while the party can help on the margins, it’s greatest power is to actively screw things up. When I asked Jeff Hauser, the director of the Revolving Door Project and a former Democratic operative who has been critical of the DCCC, to lay out this case for me, he argued that the organization shapes how individual races play out, especially in their early stages. Here’s part of the email he sent in reply:
- The DCCC recruits candidates and influences primaries by signaling who is viable or not to donors and state and local party actors.
- Mega-donors and independent expenditure groups take cues about which races matter and which messages work from the DCCC.
- Young but experienced political staff are often directed to campaigns by the DCCC — there are a lot of arranged staffing marriages where candidates and staff, even campaign managers, barely know each other.
- And candidates pick and choose messages with an eye toward being in line with the DCCC’s thinking, as they know direct contributions and independent expenditures go to campaigns in line with the DCCC.
- When Ossoff went wholly bland and didn’t run on Trump, Russia, or almost anything else readily identifiable as an issue, that represented a campaign following DCCC directions.
- If you are a Democrat and think Ossoff blew an opportunity and fear more of the same in 2018, you need the DCCC’s theory of the electorate to improve.
The Long Game
I am much less likely to play Amateur Political Consultant than I once was. Campaigns do what they do and carping from the sidelines isn't going to change that. But the thing which is maddening is that we have House elections every 2 years in this country (plus special elections of course) and it's like the whole apparatus shuts down on election day and then revs back up again 12-15 months later. With all the money spent on TV ads you could actually pay people locally to worry about this stuff full time instead of reinventing everything. Dems always complain about low midterm turnout, but, well, what are people doing about it? There isn't a fixed amount of people that go to the polls. If you truly believe there are all these people who would vote for you if only you could get them to the polls, then..
Not A Debating Club
These days we mostly refer to "bothsidesing" as the need to come up with a supposedly Equal and Opposite Bad thing a Democrat did once in 1963 every time a Republican does something Bad. But a worse kind of bothsidesing is that Both Sides have serious lawmakers who just want what is best for the country but have ideological difference about how best to achieve that. So policy debates can be framed as "the free market" versus "big government."
But Republicans don't think poor people should have health care. They think people who get sick should die if they can't pay for treatment. Sure it's "the free market" (to some degree, nothing in our health care system is really "the free market"), but only in the sense that if you can't pay you don't get to buy the product. Fair enough for Maseratis, but in this case the product is "living."
But Republicans don't think poor people should have health care. They think people who get sick should die if they can't pay for treatment. Sure it's "the free market" (to some degree, nothing in our health care system is really "the free market"), but only in the sense that if you can't pay you don't get to buy the product. Fair enough for Maseratis, but in this case the product is "living."
Your Liberal Media
Still not liberal. The ratings will suck and they will keep it on the air anyway because obviously ratings aren't the goal. Who the hell - conservative, liberal, space alien - would want to watch Hugh Hewitt?
Even at "peak liberalism" MSNBC had an evening lineup of liberals, 3-4 hours of conservative Morning Joseph, and news coverage during the day which was fairly Obama-friendly, but not any more Obama-friendly than news outlets were Bush-friendly when he was in charge.
Even at "peak liberalism" MSNBC had an evening lineup of liberals, 3-4 hours of conservative Morning Joseph, and news coverage during the day which was fairly Obama-friendly, but not any more Obama-friendly than news outlets were Bush-friendly when he was in charge.
Uber'd
Despite all of this, uber doesn't have a viable business model. They subsidize every trip. By a lot.
Taking From The Poor To Give To The Rich
The details of the Senate Republican plan to make us all die faster aren't especially important, but even without knowing I could have told you: massive tax cuts for rich people financed by gutting Medicaid and making the shitty parts of Obamacare even shittier.
When Will Everyone Realize It Just Isn't Going To Work
Jokes on me, because everyone betting it will work probably got rich already, but...
While not applying specifically to Tesla, one reason I know that it isn't going to work is that almost everyone involved is focused on the hardest application - self-driving taxis. Of course this technology will work to some degree and get a bit better over time. Fixed or semi-fixed route buses would be possible (I question whether they'll be the killer cost-saving "app" people imagine, but they'll work), along with other similar things. But the idea that you snap your fingers and a car appears to whisk you off anywhere is Jetsons stuff.
News broke that Chris Lattner, Tesla's vice president of Autopilot software, was leaving Wednesday night — its third Autopilot exec departure in the last seven months.
While not applying specifically to Tesla, one reason I know that it isn't going to work is that almost everyone involved is focused on the hardest application - self-driving taxis. Of course this technology will work to some degree and get a bit better over time. Fixed or semi-fixed route buses would be possible (I question whether they'll be the killer cost-saving "app" people imagine, but they'll work), along with other similar things. But the idea that you snap your fingers and a car appears to whisk you off anywhere is Jetsons stuff.
Bye Jobs
Not the end of the world, of course. London is doing fine. But still disruptive for the people involved...
Given that they're EU agencies and the UK will no longer be in the US, having them be in London makes about as much as sense as having them be in Los Angeles, but I suppose "the EU is insisting"...
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday the EU’s 27 leaders – minus Theresa May – are expected to take the next crucial step in moving two EU agencies out of the British capital.
The EU is insisting the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority, both located in Canary Wharf, find new homes after Brexit.
Given that they're EU agencies and the UK will no longer be in the US, having them be in London makes about as much as sense as having them be in Los Angeles, but I suppose "the EU is insisting"...
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
I'm Sure They Can Be Trusted
Obviously.
Several CIA contractors were kicked out of the agency for stealing more than $3,000 in snacks from vending machines, according to official documents newly obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Time For A Blogger Ethics Panel?
That's a story!
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday fired its highly regarded chief foreign affairs correspondent after evidence emerged of his involvement in prospective commercial deals — including one involving arms sales to foreign governments — with an international businessman who was one of his key sources.
Give Until It Hurts!!!
No, really, don't, but if you are fortunate enough to have a few spare nickels that you would otherwise give to Nice Polite Republicans...
Probably Not Much Of A Future Then
Nobody listens to me.
Looking beyond the immediate damage of a campaign like #deleteuber, there’s something else to consider for the long term: A big part of Uber’s perceived value has been attached to the notion that autonomous vehicle technology will enable the company to slough off its (human) driver cost-base entirely, i.e. not just by (as it does now) minimizing employment costs by using — some would say exploiting — low paid, ‘freelance contractors’ who do the actual work of driving people from A to B.
As far back as 2014 Kalanick has been saying Uber’s future lies in driverless cars.
“When there’s no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle. So the magic there is, you basically bring the cost below the cost of ownership for everybody, and then car ownership goes away,” he said three years ago, when Uber was valued at around $17BN, and without apparently a thought for the thousands of “dudes” he planned on leaving in the dust down the road.
Reconciliation
They'll probably just fire the parliamentarian like they did once before, but, suck on 60 votes for the moment...
Apparently this is now confirmed => https://t.co/FcMj6W40az
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 21, 2017
Reporters need to confirm this, but I'm hearing the Parliamentarian has ruled Trumpcare can't ban tax credits for plans that cover abortion.
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 13, 2017
The Boy Got It Done
Was hilarious seeing people thinking this was "crazy."
Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire are to be rehomed in a luxury housing development in the heart of Kensington, the government has said.
Sixty-eight one and two-bedroom flats have been acquired at the Kensington Row development, it added.
Buh-Bye
I don't claim enough knowledge to know the full workings of the finance side of my local orchestra, but as a casual observer and interested party, the Vulgamore tenure was fucking awful. Prices up, empty seats, an expensive bankruptcy, shitty programming, etc... I think her tenure was best exemplified by the moment when the orchestra went on strike, briefly, and donors screamed "shame" at them. Not her doing, of course, but a sign of how "management" thinks of "the help".
Anyone who presides over a non-profit bankruptcy while earning an obscenely large salary...
Anyone who presides over a non-profit bankruptcy while earning an obscenely large salary...
Middle Class White People Are Racists
Not all of them, of course, but the idea that racism is a poor people thing is one of those weird elitist concepts. A bit of education doesn't make you not racist. See our Charles Murray defending op-ed pages, for example. Modern "white flight" isn't blue collar Archie Bunker - he stayed in Queens.
Republicans aren't the party of "white trash," they're the party of suburban auto dealers. The reason people say "don't read the comments" of metro area newspapers isn't because farmers and coal miners are spending their off hours being racist online, it's because white collar suburbanites are spending their work hours being racist. All PA Philly suburban congressional districts are held by Republicans, for example. Two and three generations removed they still talk about how "those people" forced "them" to leave the city, a place they visit once per year to buy cannolis.
Not all wealthy suburbanites, of course, but the PA congressional districts have been "swinging blue" for the past 25 years and they never..quite...get...there... Sure they're contestable areas, but...
Republicans aren't the party of "white trash," they're the party of suburban auto dealers. The reason people say "don't read the comments" of metro area newspapers isn't because farmers and coal miners are spending their off hours being racist online, it's because white collar suburbanites are spending their work hours being racist. All PA Philly suburban congressional districts are held by Republicans, for example. Two and three generations removed they still talk about how "those people" forced "them" to leave the city, a place they visit once per year to buy cannolis.
Not all wealthy suburbanites, of course, but the PA congressional districts have been "swinging blue" for the past 25 years and they never..quite...get...there... Sure they're contestable areas, but...
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Why Didn't Obama Voters Vote For Hillary Clinton?
To me this is the fundamental question of the 2016 election.
For some reason this is a sensitive question. I'm not sure why. Maybe Robby Mook sucked. Maybe misogyny as a voting influence is deeper than racism as a voting influence. Maybe voters weren't happy with the results of 8 years of Obama. Maybe 25 years of media attacks on Clinton did their job. Maybe Clinton was a horrible campaigner. Maybe her proposed policies sucked. Maybe the media didn't talk about policy (they never do, so of course). Maybe CNN becoming "The Donald Trump" show for 10 months or so did it. Maybe Clinton's ad campaigns sucked. I actually don't have any answer, and of course one can invoke any and all of these things to throw the necessary couple of hundred thousand voters in the right places to Clinton.
Whatever the reasons, Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in part because people who voted for Obama once or twice didn't vote for her. Figuring out why matters if Democrats want to win.
For some reason this is a sensitive question. I'm not sure why. Maybe Robby Mook sucked. Maybe misogyny as a voting influence is deeper than racism as a voting influence. Maybe voters weren't happy with the results of 8 years of Obama. Maybe 25 years of media attacks on Clinton did their job. Maybe Clinton was a horrible campaigner. Maybe her proposed policies sucked. Maybe the media didn't talk about policy (they never do, so of course). Maybe CNN becoming "The Donald Trump" show for 10 months or so did it. Maybe Clinton's ad campaigns sucked. I actually don't have any answer, and of course one can invoke any and all of these things to throw the necessary couple of hundred thousand voters in the right places to Clinton.
Whatever the reasons, Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in part because people who voted for Obama once or twice didn't vote for her. Figuring out why matters if Democrats want to win.
Priorities
I have a small platform and can post as much as I want. Still some things attract my attention and some things don't. Not everything which attracts my attentions is super important. I hope that's obvious. Still, it's reasonably fair to judge me, to some extent, by the things I emphasize (not by one post, but by ALL THE POSTS).
And other people by the same standard.
(Of course some people have a niche focus and that is fine. The mating habits of the duck-billed platypus might not be the most important thing in the world, but there is nothing wrong with that being your thing. But if your focus is general politics, and you obsess about, I dunno, horrible college kids being mad that Charles Murray thinks black kids are genetically inferior, you are saying something about yourself. Something not good.)
And other people by the same standard.
(Of course some people have a niche focus and that is fine. The mating habits of the duck-billed platypus might not be the most important thing in the world, but there is nothing wrong with that being your thing. But if your focus is general politics, and you obsess about, I dunno, horrible college kids being mad that Charles Murray thinks black kids are genetically inferior, you are saying something about yourself. Something not good.)
Eschaton Book Club!
Recommend a book! Rule is that you have to have read it in the last 3 months. Doesn't have to be new, but it has to be new to you. Go!
Related
I recommended this once before, but The Sellout was really my recent "this book fucks your shit up" awesome read.
The blurb descriptions are bad. It's just... a fuck your shit up kind of book, the kind that we all need.
The blurb descriptions are bad. It's just... a fuck your shit up kind of book, the kind that we all need.
Constitutional Crisis
I admit the nuances of constitutional law in a country which doesn't actually have a written constitution are above my pay grade, but..
BREAKING UK Government sources: No DUP deal til Thursday at the earliest. Theresa May will unveil Queen's Speech without a Commons majority.
— Christopher Hope 📝 (@christopherhope) June 20, 2017
Unconnected Thoughts
Oops..I didn't meant to suggest I was nearing economic disaster. Nothing wrong with asking for help out of need, but I would say so. There's a difference between your NPR dollars and your charity dollars. If I needed the latter I would say so. This is your extra margarita money, not your helping refugees money.
Summer Mini-Fundraiser!
One of my advertising revenue sources disappeared though I am not sure why. I normally do two fundaisers per year - spring and fall - but google (I don't know if they are to blame for this, but...) has been busy destroying all competing non-annoying (popups, auto-ons, etc) advertising for years. Anyway, so 3 day minifundraiser funtastic! If you're feeling generous and drunk on the summer sun hours give a bit. If not, don't!
Why Them?
Given that there are no shortage of candidates for prosecution, it's fascinating when someone actually is prosecuted for bankster crimes.
Who, exactly, did they piss off?
Barclays Plc and four former executives were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud regarding the bank’s 2008 capital raising from Qatar, following a five-year investigation into one of the most turbulent periods in financial history.
Who, exactly, did they piss off?
Is This The Life We Really Want?
How many of you are two lost paychecks away or one illness away from economic disaster? It really shouldn't be this way. It really doesn't have to be this way.
Assholes
My good friend (we met once) Dawn Foster in the NYT:
The former chair of the Grenfell Tower residents’ association, David Collins, told me many residents received threatening letters from lawyers for the contractor completing the building work, and they felt intimidated by visits and complaints from managers of the company.
The blaze happened after a yearslong attack by the Conservative government on low-income housing. The amount of public housing being built has dropped for more than two decades, even more drastically since 2012 to reach a 24-year low. Meanwhile, more and more is being sold off and demolished, even though demand is higher than it has been in decades.
Many local councils have been desperate to build, but have instead had their funding slashed, meaning they are closing homeless shelters when they want to build more homes. As well as funding cuts, changes in the classification of homelessness have seen more families turned away when they need help: Over 100,000 children in England are currently in temporary accommodation, while single adults are routinely turned away.
Bye Spicey
You won't be missed. You're a horrible person working for a horrible person.
I guess Huckabee Sanders won't get the big promotion, either. Who would want this job? It's like the second biggest part of the President Trump show, after Trump himself, and the show is all he cares about. It isn't a performance for the press or for the country, it's a variety show for Donald. The only way to make Donald look good is to be full of shit and have the press stand up and applaud it. Our White House Press Corps isn't perfect, but they aren't that bad.
President Donald Trump is making preparations to shake up his communications team at a moment when a disciplined public message is paramount, adding to the tumult surrounding the investigations of his White House.
Trump’s most visible spokesman, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, may move into a more senior role focused on strategy that will take him away from the briefing room podium -- and Trump may hire a new press secretary, two people familiar with the discussions said.
I guess Huckabee Sanders won't get the big promotion, either. Who would want this job? It's like the second biggest part of the President Trump show, after Trump himself, and the show is all he cares about. It isn't a performance for the press or for the country, it's a variety show for Donald. The only way to make Donald look good is to be full of shit and have the press stand up and applaud it. Our White House Press Corps isn't perfect, but they aren't that bad.
Monday, June 19, 2017
Boy Blunder Needs Lawyers
Hopefully (not really) he has better ones than pop-in-law.
Representatives of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, have quietly contacted high-powered criminal lawyers about potentially representing him in the wide-ranging investigation into Russia’s influence on the 2016 election, according to three people briefed on the matter.
Peace At Last
The idea that any sort of mutually agreeable (and willing to be agreed to) deal in Israel is possible is laughable, let alone the idea that Jared Kushner, Boy Blunder, can make it happen.
Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, is traveling to the Middle East this week in pursuit of a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, a White House official confirmed Sunday night.
Henry Kissinger Is A Distinguished Elder Statesmen
Pals with all the best people.
Watergate prosecutors had evidence that operatives for then-President Richard Nixon planned an assault on anti-war demonstrators in 1972, including potentially physically attacking Vietnam whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, according to a never-before-published memo obtained by NBC News.
The document, an 18-page 1973 investigative memorandum from the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, sheds new light on how prosecutors were investigating attempts at domestic political violence by Nixon aides, an extremely serious charge.
...
Stone, who also appeared on "The Point" Sunday night, insisted it was Henry Kissinger who had been riling up Nixon against Ellsberg — a point Akerman heatedly rejected.
"The Nixon administration’s paranoia about Daniel Ellsberg is driven by Henry Kissinger," Stone said. "You can hear him in the tapes: 'He’s a pervert, Mr. President. He must be dealt with, Mr. President.'"
PPP
Whenever I see people (including Very Serious Liberals) advocating public-private partnerships I wait for the reasoning...and there's never a reason! At best it's something like "to pretend the state isn't borrowing the money that it is borrowing" but in practice it's like "hand over public assets for the privilege of borrowing at 6% when you could just borrow at 3%". Also, you could raise taxes.
PPP's aren't about contracting out construction work. Good or bad, that's pretty normal. It's about getting Big Finance involved and handing over some public assets.
At first, it sounded like a good idea: Indiana would use a public-private partnership to extend I-69 from Bloomington to Martinsville, relying on private sector ingenuity to bring it in on time and under budget.
But the project is two years behind schedule. The prolonged construction has increased traffic accidents and lengthened commute times. And, now, as the state is dissolving the partnership — which some argue could end up costing Hoosiers millions of dollars — a difficult question needs to be asked:
How did this once-touted project — pitched and promoted by then-Gov. Mike Pence as a model for smart infrastructure planning — become such an embarrassing mess?
PPP's aren't about contracting out construction work. Good or bad, that's pretty normal. It's about getting Big Finance involved and handing over some public assets.
3000 Pound Death Machines
It's something you feel uncomfortable mentioning much, in the "don't give people any ideas" category, but it has long puzzled me why cars/buses/trucks were not used more for indiscriminate terrorist attacks. Bombs are tricky and guns aren't available in much of the world. Vehicles are easy to obtain. Much easier to strap a massive vehicle to yourself and plunge it into the crowd. We can be glad that the last few people to do this weren't very smart about it. I guess the only "bad" thing from a would-be terrorist's perspective is that such attacks aren't likely to create as much chaos and disruption. No one's going to call for screening people who can use vehicles. Roads aren't going to be shut down for more than a day.
Generally, if people are willing to get caught/die in the act, it's impossible to stop these things from happening.
Generally, if people are willing to get caught/die in the act, it's impossible to stop these things from happening.
Please Buy Me A Flat In A No-Go Zone
It's a mystery why any American conservative believes these things.
Some things are false and some things are like "Earth is Flat" level false you don't even know where to begin. Please, oh please, conservatives, send me to stay literally anywhere in London for a month. If I survive you have to pay for my lodging.
Of course they think Shakespeare is alive and don't know who Julius Caesar is, so...
FOX News anchor mentions "no-go zones" during coverage of #London. pic.twitter.com/QGrZm5xoCC
— Richard W. (@IceManNYR) June 19, 2017
Some things are false and some things are like "Earth is Flat" level false you don't even know where to begin. Please, oh please, conservatives, send me to stay literally anywhere in London for a month. If I survive you have to pay for my lodging.
Of course they think Shakespeare is alive and don't know who Julius Caesar is, so...
Don't Think Brits Get It
Whether or not something is a terrorist attack depends only on whether the attacker is a Muslim.
One person has died and eight people have been taken to hospital after being hit by a van in a "potential terror attack" near a north London mosque.
The van driver, described by eyewitnesses as a large white man, was detained by members of the public after the attack in Seven Sisters Road at 12.20am on Monday.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
They Fought The Law
I keep pondering how anyone could be so stupid as to willingly go work for the Trump administration at this point. I realize that not many are, but anyone?
So weird.
So weird.
The World Turns
The British (right wing) press, ever so slowly, seems to be turning on Brexit. May made Brexit synonmous with Prime Minister May, and as that all goes to shit so does, to some extent, Brexit.
It'll still happen, but much more likely to be Norway-style than it was a few weeks ago.
Tell me when Trump tweets something stupid.
It'll still happen, but much more likely to be Norway-style than it was a few weeks ago.
Tell me when Trump tweets something stupid.
10 Days For May
Don't think it's when but how.
Theresa May has just 10 days to save her job as Tory MPs plot to evict her from Downing Street, it was claimed today.
Around a dozen MPs are said to be ready to make a written demand for a new leadership contest to replace Mrs May before the summer.
And more will step up if votes on the Queen's Speech - due on around June 28 - look like being lost after Mrs May squandered the Tories' Commons majority in the election.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit
UK edition.
A tragic fire puts an emphasis on the issue, but finding various ways to "rehouse" people in council housing or on housing benefit away from their neighborhoods (and their kids' schools) has long been an issue. Find an excuse to move them, then force them to move far away. In dense cities, a couple of miles is far away. Big cities are all collections of villages.
Kensington and Chelsea Council has backtracked over its earlier claim that survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire could be rehoused outside the area.
It follows a statement from the authority that indicated victims may need to move out of west London to other parts of the capital.
A tragic fire puts an emphasis on the issue, but finding various ways to "rehouse" people in council housing or on housing benefit away from their neighborhoods (and their kids' schools) has long been an issue. Find an excuse to move them, then force them to move far away. In dense cities, a couple of miles is far away. Big cities are all collections of villages.
The Trouble With Brexit
Is that the politics are tricky at the moment, but everyone will hate it when it happens. They might not know they hate it, as Brexit itself demonstrates that politicians (with the help of a highly partisan media and a cowed "objective" (BBC) media) can redirect blame quite easily, but unless the UK basically becomes Norway, people will hate Brexit. They will really hate it. What a mess.
Bad Agreements
My theory is the "a bad agreement is worse than no agreement" line is meant to suggest to (uninformed) people that if the UK can't come to an agreement with the EU over Brexit, then the status quo will continue. In other words, things will be better, or nothing will change. Of course that's not what will happen. "No agreement" essentially rips up almost all treaty/trade/immigration relationships between the UK and the rest of the world and requires them to start from scratch on everything. Among other things, millions of people in the UK and in EU countries would suddenly have no legal residency or work status.
It is almost impossible to think of a deal which would be worse than no deal at all.
It is almost impossible to think of a deal which would be worse than no deal at all.
Uber Death Watch
The issues of the, uh, culture of Uber, while important, seem to obscure the real issue: they don't have a viable business model.
Can't double prices, and can't keep subsidizing every ride. That's the issue. As I keep saying, while local taxi/medallion regulations have their problems, and there's certainly nothing wrong with adding better hailing technology, there are/were very good reasons for supply restricting cab regulations.
And, no, self-driving cars aren't going to solve their problems. Urban taxis are actually the dumbest (least likely to function well) possible use for the technology, and nobody really believes the things are going to work in the next 5 years...(obviously I am more pessimistic than that).
Uber's list of "issues" seems to grow with each passing day. Even when it tries to turn things around something goes wrong like one of its board members making a sexist remark and ending up leaving his seat. But it's still trying to convince its customers that it's willing to change and has even started emailing riders an apology.
Some New York City customers received an email from the ride-hailing company Friday afternoon according to Business Insider that notes, "ultimately, the measure of our success is the satisfaction of our riders, drivers, and employees -- and we realize that we have fallen short." The company says that because it expanded so quickly it "failed to prioritize the people that helped get us here."
Can't double prices, and can't keep subsidizing every ride. That's the issue. As I keep saying, while local taxi/medallion regulations have their problems, and there's certainly nothing wrong with adding better hailing technology, there are/were very good reasons for supply restricting cab regulations.
And, no, self-driving cars aren't going to solve their problems. Urban taxis are actually the dumbest (least likely to function well) possible use for the technology, and nobody really believes the things are going to work in the next 5 years...(obviously I am more pessimistic than that).
Friday, June 16, 2017
How Did We Get Here
Team D deserves its share of the blame, but people who play liberals on TV like Michelle Cottle do too.
Consider what cocktail of ketamine, magic mushrooms, peyote, vodka, and the snorted ashes of a wad of $1000 bills can lead you to write that article. Or, of course, a cushy career.
Can Paul Ryan Push Republicans to Prioritize Poverty?
The House speaker has put the issue atop his agenda, but he’ll first have to overcome apathy within his party.
Consider what cocktail of ketamine, magic mushrooms, peyote, vodka, and the snorted ashes of a wad of $1000 bills can lead you to write that article. Or, of course, a cushy career.
Guns Kill And Also Fuck Your Shit Up Generally
I have no idea what Congressman's Scalise's condition is, but Jason Fagone, the first person to interview this grey turtleneck wearing blogger, wrote about what bullets do to people even if they don't kill you.
...just after I first scheduled this post, this article arrived.
Rafi Colon was shot once in the abdomen with a 9 mm handgun during a home invasion in September 2005. The bullet tore through his intestines. Trauma surgeons at Temple had to open his abdomen to repair the injuries, but fistulas developed, holes that wouldn’t heal, and until they healed, the incision couldn’t be closed. He spent the next 11 months in the hospital, immobilized in bed, with an open wound down the front of him that had the circumference of a basketball. It got to the point where it was a normal thing for him to look down and think, oh, those are my intestines, there they are.
...just after I first scheduled this post, this article arrived.
It’s the kind of trouble trauma surgeons see often, and they have learned though bitter experience how best to deal with it.
The first priority is to operate to stop the bleeding and control any contamination that might arise from something like a torn intestine. Afterward, hospital staff members wheel the patient from the operating room straight to intensive care, often with the abdomen still open.
What's Wrong With Theresa May?
I sorta got the "you're popular, call a snap election, keep your head mostly down for a few weeks so no one catches you doing anything stupid, then lock in a big win for 5 years" strategy. It turned out to be a very bad one, and that was obvious early enough that it was, well, obvious, but it made sense at the time. Then it failed. But the election's over, and her inability and unwillingness to talk to the great unwashed is increasingly bizarre.
Don't you think she looks tired?
That tomb in the sky will be forever Theresa May’s monument. Grenfell marks the spot and her visit marks the moment the last vestiges of her career were finally rubbed out. She made it her own yesterday by that fateful “visit” to a handful of senior fire officers, guarding her from any contaminating contact with the bereaved and newly homeless. Dead to emotion or empathy, she sealed her fate.
Don't you think she looks tired?
Fire
The London apartment tower fire was a council (public) housing tower in a rich (and getting richer) part of London. Rich councils have been pushing out such things in various ways, both to get rid of the icky poors and to make real estate developers rich. They put some fancy dress on this one to make it prettier for the surrounding rich residents. It was flammable. The material is banned for this use even in our regulation free libertarian nirvana. They could have used the fire resistant version for 5 thousand pounds more, a rounding error on a project of that magnitude. They didn't. Whether or not it was a major contributing factor in the fire, it could have been, and it shows the contempt for the poors. Their deaths just don't matter.
In our little country, there is this notion that Both Sides (the archetypes of the two parties, anyway) want roughly the same things (peeance and freeance and prosperity), but we just disagree about how to get there. I don't think this was really ever true, but if it ever was it isn't anymore. The health care debate shows that one side thinks that if you're poor you should fucking die, the sooner the better, and the other side doesn't. (Within Team D is actually where this imagined Both Sides debate is - whether the free market fairy should be harnessed to give most of us health care, or whether it's time for full socialism. Elected Team R, except for maybe about 3 of them, thinks the poor should just fucking die already, whether in fires or untreated cancer).
In our little country, there is this notion that Both Sides (the archetypes of the two parties, anyway) want roughly the same things (peeance and freeance and prosperity), but we just disagree about how to get there. I don't think this was really ever true, but if it ever was it isn't anymore. The health care debate shows that one side thinks that if you're poor you should fucking die, the sooner the better, and the other side doesn't. (Within Team D is actually where this imagined Both Sides debate is - whether the free market fairy should be harnessed to give most of us health care, or whether it's time for full socialism. Elected Team R, except for maybe about 3 of them, thinks the poor should just fucking die already, whether in fires or untreated cancer).
Right in the Head
He's not well. Journalists and others hint more and more but it isn't enough.
Trump, for months, has bristled almost daily about the ongoing probes. He has sometimes, without prompting, injected. “I’m not under investigation” into conversations with associates and allies. He has watched hours of TV coverage every day — sometimes even storing morning news shows on his TiVo to watch in the evening — and complained nonstop.
No They Love It
The Fake News Media hates when I use what has turned out to be my very powerful Social Media - over 100 million people! I can go around them
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2017
Reasonably convinced that one of the strategies his lickspittles have tried to use to keep him off the twitter is to point to bad media coverage of it. They can't say "you look like a dumbass and it'll likely put us in jail" so they have to find some sort of "it's the fault of other people" reason to encourage him not to.
No it isn't good that the twittering makes the President of the United States - and therefore the rest of us - look like a dumbass - but I'm pretty sure that aside from that everybody, including the evil emm ess emm, loves it... Everybody except his lawyers and jailbound underlings...
Thursday, June 15, 2017
These Aren't The Democrats I Know
There seems to be a growing conventional cool kids wisdom that if the Republicans manage to gut ACA one way or another then Dems will just say fuck it and pass some version of single payer (recognizing that to some degree "single payer" has become code for a variety of things which might not actually be single payer but close enough, including massive but not universal expansions of medicaid/medicare) the instant they have majorities in the House and Senate. I think this is optimistic.
I would certainly be happy to be proved fucking wrong.
I would certainly be happy to be proved fucking wrong.
I AM GUILTY I AM GUILTY I AM GUILTY I AM GUILTY
Reading the latest tweets from himself, I reminded of that 2 month or so period when every time there was a tweet lots of people imagined it was some master manipulation strategy instead of the spontaneous ravings of a stupid senile man. THE TWEET IS DISTRACTING IS FROM THE REAL NEWS.
No. He's just really stupid and senile and guilty.
No. He's just really stupid and senile and guilty.
Stupid Phone
Was busy with some stuff today. Posting on a phone does not always work well. This was the intended link for this post.
I also put up another post but apparently it went into the void. I am a bad blogger.
I also put up another post but apparently it went into the void. I am a bad blogger.
Still Dreaming
I did check the webcam and there have been construction-related program activities, but..
Unrated is code for "they're junk but they don't want to call them junk."
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. delayed its sale of the American Dream.
The investment bank pushed off the planned pricing of $1.1 billion of unrated municipal bonds to finance the long-stalled shopping and entertainment center in New Jersey’s Meadowlands, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Manhattan, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The deal for the project, named for the national belief that anyone can succeed, was supposed to price today. Speculative debt offerings sometimes take longer than initially planned because bankers need to drum up buyers and address the questions of would-be investors. Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment. It may still come as soon as Thursday, according to Bloomberg data.
Unrated is code for "they're junk but they don't want to call them junk."
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Well Then
I mean he's already admitted it, but...
The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.
The move by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s own conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.
The Fed Needs To Signal Something Important
And that is that they will never, ever, ever, ever, let wages rise again.
You Have To Admit He Has A Point
Rather obvious, but the reason that lots of people from "liberals" to conservative defend Charles Murray against the all powerful oppression of the black (and other) college students Murray thinks are genetically inferior, is because they basically agree with him. OK they may not go the full Murray - there are always those "more troubling bits" of the Bell Curve - but they basically think that African-Americans and Latinos failure to prosper in our glorious meritocracy is largely due to the fact that they're intellectually inferior. They might not quite buy into the "it's genetics!" idea (though some do), but they want it to be perfectly respectable to acknowledge the "truth" that Actually, black people are not as good as white people.
Inflation is Always Around the Corner
And the Fed must raise rates just in case and make sure wages never increase again.
Our President Is Dumber Than Jim Hoft
Trump hopes the threat of firing Mueller will help get the result he wants, the NYT reports https://t.co/eqgmCtmAee pic.twitter.com/cbYab5ct6D
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) June 14, 2017
This Is Horrible
Old tower block in London up in flames, by accounts no integrated fire alarms system, no real fire plan for residents, etc...
Morning Thread
Imma gonna assert a privilege I do not have, preemptively, just in case Atrios decides to assert this privilege at some later date.
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Tuesday Crass Commercialism
Dave Weigel wrote a book about the worst music ever made. Buy it!
He conned someone at the New Yorker into writing about it!
He conned someone at the New Yorker into writing about it!
Sometime Next Year
May 5, 2016:
February 17, 2017...
so, by december, 2018...
Lyft has many partners...
Later this year...
Anyway, this will be a fun game. Maybe they'll figure it out and everyone can laugh at me!
GM and Lyft plan to begin putting self-driving cabs to the test sometime within the next year. According to The Wall Street Journal, the companies intend to put Chevrolet Bolts on the road in a yet-to-be-named city, where they'll actually be picking up Lyft passengers.
February 17, 2017...
General Motors plans to deploy thousands of self-driving electric cars in test fleets in partnership with ride-sharing affiliate Lyft, beginning in 2018, two sources familiar with the automaker’s plans said this week.
so, by december, 2018...
Lyft has many partners...
JUNE 6, 2017 by: Leslie Hook in London
Ride-hailing company Lyft, Uber’s chief US rival, will begin its first pilot programme for self-driving taxis in Boston later this year in conjunction with nuTonomy, the autonomous car start-up.
Later this year...
Anyway, this will be a fun game. Maybe they'll figure it out and everyone can laugh at me!
What Are You There For
Top Senate D aide emails to say not going nuclear on AHCA also allows them to hammer out bipartisan Russian sanctions deal. So there's that
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) June 13, 2017
Whether or not they can stop it, the only way to shine the light on this secret bill is to create theater by using all of the tactics available to senators. I could write 3000 furious words about this, but because I am pithy the pith-man I will represent my feelings with a "meme" invoking the one book series political junkies have read:
The End of Racism
Well then.
Cupertino...Cupertino..why is that name familiar...
The family of an African-American girl has taken steps to sue a South Bay school district, alleging she felt threatened after classmates posted a "kill list" on social media, court documents revealed Monday.
The civil complaint says the Fremont Union High School District was negligent because it didn't do enough to stop a Monta Vista High School student from being threatened. The alleged kill list threatened to kill or shoot all black students at the Cupertino school. The student suffered mental and emotional distress and was forced to transfer to another school out of fear for her life, the complaint says.
Cupertino...Cupertino..why is that name familiar...
So It Wasn't Necessary Then?
Are you saying austerity was just a con job to gut the welfare state? A very successful con job that even most of the left leaning press was on board with? Oh well, bygones.
Morning Thread
It is an honor and a blessing to be a part of the esteemed Baby Blue Blog. The bestest blog on the entire worldwide internet. Hugely best.
Monday, June 12, 2017
He Already Said This
But he's restating... they're going to mint the coin!!!!
4:45 p.m.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he has “backup plans” to fund the government through at least the beginning of September if Congress fails to heed his request to increase the government’s borrowing cap before its August break.
The Ways Of Washington
Journalists rarely share like this.
In a quintessentially D.C. move, some longtime friends of Gorelick contacted for this article offered complimentary comments about her on the record, and then, after asking if they could make other remarks without attribution, bashed their colleague to smithereens. Those people will not be quoted in this article, by name or anonymously, as one tiny bulwark against outright awfulness.
Trolololololo
GREAT meeting today with the best staff in the history of the world!!! pic.twitter.com/ocE1xhEAac
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 12, 2017
Well Then
Trump is inviting his Cabinet members to go around the table praising him
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 12, 2017
Trump went around table listening to his Cabinet praise him
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 12, 2017
Reince: “We thank you for the opportunity & the blessing…to serve your agenda” pic.twitter.com/3MPQq4CIiq
This is totally normal and not the kind of thing that people with dementia do.*
*My grandmother had dementia of some sort, and while she was not President and did not have a Cabinet, this was exactly the kind of thing she would do near the end.
Technological Change Explains Everything Except...
The other point of this post is that economists have long been enamored with explaining rising inequality by attributing it to technological change or "skill-biased technological change" which just means that technology has made smart people earn more money so whatchagonnado. Of course technological change is just "the change that can't be explained by anything else we were looking at" most of the time. So what if we had reverse "skill-biased" (in quotes, because I don't think the Trumps Jr have many skills) technological change which rewarded the truck drivers and secretaries and burger flippers of the world somehow at the expense of the overclass? I suspect many would not be happy, even if it was indisputably due to the magic technology box the benevolent alien (me!) provided.
Thought Experiment
I am a benevolent alien. I have just come to Earth and informed the people and political leaders of the United States of America that I can offer them a technology that will do the following:
1) for the next 10 years provide real GDP growth of 6% annually (more than double what an optimistic prediction would be, even absent any recession)
2) The bottom 80% of the income distribution would receive all of the gain from this income growth.
3) In addition, the top 20% would see their incomes decline by 5% per year, with all of that income going to additional gains for the bottom 80% (this is not redistribution, this is just what the magic technology box I am offering will do to the economy and income distribution).
So we have a technological change which vastly improves growth, but impacts the income the distribution which decreases both the share of and absolute incomes at the top, and increases them at the bottom. No one doubts the sincerity of my offer or its results, not even Alex Jones. No one thinks my plan "to serve man" is something other than what I claim.
How do people react to this? What does the WSJ editorial page say? The Washington Post editorial page? Tom Friedman? David Brooks? Leading economists? A Republican president (not Trump, a generic one)? A Democratic president?
Congress must pass a law to accept this technology. Does a Republican Congress pass it? Does a Democratic Congress pass it?
Does the Supreme Court declare accepting this technology to be unconstitutional, perhaps because it is an unlawful uncompensated taking from rich people?
I'm genuinely curious.
The subtext is that economists always cheer on GDP gains and get pissy about distributional questions when hippies bring them up. Here is a technology which will unambiguously bring about significant increased economic growth, just with the distributional impacts we aren't accustomed to these days. Will they still cheer it on? (of course some would, #notalleconomistsarethesame). Will the cries of "class warfare" be shouted loudly from on high?
1) for the next 10 years provide real GDP growth of 6% annually (more than double what an optimistic prediction would be, even absent any recession)
2) The bottom 80% of the income distribution would receive all of the gain from this income growth.
3) In addition, the top 20% would see their incomes decline by 5% per year, with all of that income going to additional gains for the bottom 80% (this is not redistribution, this is just what the magic technology box I am offering will do to the economy and income distribution).
So we have a technological change which vastly improves growth, but impacts the income the distribution which decreases both the share of and absolute incomes at the top, and increases them at the bottom. No one doubts the sincerity of my offer or its results, not even Alex Jones. No one thinks my plan "to serve man" is something other than what I claim.
How do people react to this? What does the WSJ editorial page say? The Washington Post editorial page? Tom Friedman? David Brooks? Leading economists? A Republican president (not Trump, a generic one)? A Democratic president?
Congress must pass a law to accept this technology. Does a Republican Congress pass it? Does a Democratic Congress pass it?
Does the Supreme Court declare accepting this technology to be unconstitutional, perhaps because it is an unlawful uncompensated taking from rich people?
I'm genuinely curious.
The subtext is that economists always cheer on GDP gains and get pissy about distributional questions when hippies bring them up. Here is a technology which will unambiguously bring about significant increased economic growth, just with the distributional impacts we aren't accustomed to these days. Will they still cheer it on? (of course some would, #notalleconomistsarethesame). Will the cries of "class warfare" be shouted loudly from on high?
Which Team
Parallels between Labour and the Democrats can easily be overstated (and usually are) which is why I do my best to avoid them, but one useful lesson is that so much of politics as narrated by elites has little to do with policy. It's about which team is in charge. Whose friends are going to get good jobs. Which politicians have the right journalists on whatever messaging app people use these days. Which clique is up and which clique is down. Who is on the inside and who is on the outside.
Sure your place on the political spectrum - your policy platform - becomes a kind of tribal signifier, but so many of the people who devote their lives to politics as a career in one way or another really don't seem to care much at all about the policies (except the ones which hit their wallets directly). Electability, "optics," and judgment about appeals to voters they know nothing about in Fritters (here) or The North (UK), are all used to justify why one team is superior to another, but those judgments are usually completely wrong, and often based one upper middle class concerns being projected onto the masses. And those judgments are rarely backed up by any polling data. It's Chris Cillizza's world, we just live in it. Really don't think voters in the UK are going to be turned off by an increase in the top corporate tax rate, or that a slightly higher minimum wage will doom a Democrat here. Might even be popular!
Policies are good and bad based not on their merits, or even any accurate judgment about their perceived popularity, but instead based on which team is behind them. We're all a bit tribal, sure, but it's the people who imagine themselves to be the least tribal Vulcan observers of this thing called politics who are the most tribal of all, even if that tribe is often neither team D or team R, but team Elite Washington. Their careers depend on it.
Sure your place on the political spectrum - your policy platform - becomes a kind of tribal signifier, but so many of the people who devote their lives to politics as a career in one way or another really don't seem to care much at all about the policies (except the ones which hit their wallets directly). Electability, "optics," and judgment about appeals to voters they know nothing about in Fritters (here) or The North (UK), are all used to justify why one team is superior to another, but those judgments are usually completely wrong, and often based one upper middle class concerns being projected onto the masses. And those judgments are rarely backed up by any polling data. It's Chris Cillizza's world, we just live in it. Really don't think voters in the UK are going to be turned off by an increase in the top corporate tax rate, or that a slightly higher minimum wage will doom a Democrat here. Might even be popular!
Policies are good and bad based not on their merits, or even any accurate judgment about their perceived popularity, but instead based on which team is behind them. We're all a bit tribal, sure, but it's the people who imagine themselves to be the least tribal Vulcan observers of this thing called politics who are the most tribal of all, even if that tribe is often neither team D or team R, but team Elite Washington. Their careers depend on it.
I Promise To Stop Being A Jerky Jerk
Sure.
The problem is that people actually like controlling jerks to be in charge, as long as they're jerks to the right people (people who aren't me).
Theresa May will appeal to her MPs to throw their weight behind her at a crunch meeting on Monday, as her future hangs in the balance after the Conservatives’ majority was wiped out in Thursday’s general election.
The prime minister is expected to signal to her parliamentary colleagues that she will run her government in a more collegiate, less controlling way, after sacrificing her two closest advisers, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy.
The problem is that people actually like controlling jerks to be in charge, as long as they're jerks to the right people (people who aren't me).
Morning Thread
I'm sure the Brits are highly disappointed that our president's trip has been indefinitely postponed. Or not.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Not Just About Beating Expectations
Anyway, I promise to not be all about UK politics eventually, and I'm still a bit busy so I don't have time to explain What It All Means, but USians who think "what's the deal with Corbyn? he lost!" are really missing the fully story. It's complicated, but the short version is that Labour Establishment (Blairite MPs, their pals in the press, the broader orbit of People Who Claim To Speak For Labour) spent 2 years arguing that both Corbyn personally and Corbynism - his politics - would doom Labour not just in the next election, but perhaps for a generation. Even the "objective" BBC was completely hostile to Corbyn, instead spending its time fluffing Nigel Farage and his party, despite the fact that he was not an MP and his party had just a few MPs 1 MP. They treated Farage and UKIP like Politico and CNN treated Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and the Tea Party, with not much more justification. All this is wrapped around the politics of Brexit, which everyone Serious treated as the only issue in politics.
Don't have enough time now, as I said, but despite all that Corbyn managed to completely reverse all trends of the past 7+ years in UK politics. It's a big fucking deal.
Don't have enough time now, as I said, but despite all that Corbyn managed to completely reverse all trends of the past 7+ years in UK politics. It's a big fucking deal.
Can't You Lock The Place Down?
I'm sure this is about not being able to get assurances that May would lock down half of Central London, which she really can't.
Donald Trump has told Theresa May in a phone call he does not want to go ahead with a state visit to Britain until the British public supports him coming.
The US president said he did not want to come if there were large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time.
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Almost Feel Bad For Theresa May
Hahaha no I don't.
Ruth Davidson is to defy Theresa May’s plans for a hard Brexit and tear her Scottish party away from English control after the UK Tories’ disastrous General Election result.
Amid a growing clamour among senior Tories in London for Ms Davidson to be given a top position in the UK party, her aides are working on a deal that would see the Scottish party break away to form a separate organisation.
Friday, June 09, 2017
I Guess They're Going To Mint The Coint
And why not?
The U.S. government has “backup plans” for funding itself if Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit before lawmakers leave for their August recess as hoped, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
“I don’t want to leave any doubt, we have plans, backup plans for funding the government,” Mnuchin told reporters Friday at a press conference in Ottawa with Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau. “We will be fine if they don’t do it beforehand, but I want to emphasize that the sooner they do it, the less uncertainty there is in the market,” he said.
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